Contact tracers of coronavirus cases are being faced with lies and even abuse, with one young volunteer denouncing the “huge waste of time”.

Lisa Galea, 19, chose to spend her summer contacting those who could be infected and get them to quarantine.

Ironically, at the start of the outbreak, when everyone was self-isolating, people would insist on quarantining even if they did not need to, just to get two weeks off work, Galea said.

But now, at the height of summer, it is the opposite scenario: staying home is no longer ideal and people are doing whatever they can to avoid it, she claims.

The Medical Biochemistry student, who immediately signed up for voluntary contact tracing when the university closed in March, felt it was the right thing to do.

“Then, it was a lot scarier, even though the situation is as intense now. It also kept me out of the house and occupied in semi-lockdown,” Galea said.

While her friends enjoy the summer, she often cannot join them as she juggles this voluntary work with a flexible part-time job.

“I could have worked more and earned money, and although the situation was different when I signed up for this, I have no regrets,” she said, despite having to face “screaming and shouting” down the phone, with contacts saying she has no right to tell them to stay indoors.

'We were not prepared to handle that amount'

Following a lull in COVID-19, contact tracing fell behind at the end of July as cases skyrocketed due to mass events, reaching 70 a day, and the situation got out of hand.

“We were not prepared to handle that amount,” she said, despite working five- to eight-hour shifts.

But about 10 days ago, they finally caught up with the backlog – an “exciting milestone”.

And many of the positive cases are contacts of previous ones, so they were already in quarantine and have not been spreading COVID-19, meaning further tracing is not required.

This is why contact tracing and obeying mandatory quarantine are so important. But not everyone gets it.

Galea receives a file on positive cases and their contacts list – including those the patients met 48 hours before being symptomatic as an additional precaution.

She calls them for a risk assessment to decide, based also on the simple but important measures of mask wearing and hand sanitising, whether they should quarantine.

We often have to use the ‘threat’ of the €3,000 fine to convince people to stay in isolation... if it did not exist, the majority would not

But it can get tricky.

“They tell us to call back in five minutes; then they do not pick up the phone and we have to call multiple times,” she said.

'We have to send the police officers'

“We have to send the police officers when they really do not cooperate and refuse to provide their address.”

Galea has often had to deal with the “problem” of contradictions on the type of contact and go back and forth to verify conflicting information, particularly at the peak this summer.

She faced a surreal situation when, “apparently”, none of the friends were sitting next to a positive case at dinner in a restaurant.

“They were all far away at the other end of the table!”

Some change their version and she has had to convince them to tell the truth.

“Trust is an important factor,” she acknowledged.

"At the end of the day, we have to believe what they tell us.

“It is up to everyone to be responsible and understand it is not just about themselves,” she appealed.

The biggest headache so far was with underage foreign students from a language school that told them they could leave the country while the contact tracers informed them they had to quarantine.

“They cried on the phone because they wanted to go home. Their stay was over and they did not have enough money,” Galea said, adding that they attempted to leave Malta and had to be convinced to remain, with doctors intervening and the school providing accommodation.

Throughout the pandemic, the number of contacts to be traced has changed and “increased drastically”.

Originally, each positive case had around 10 among family and colleagues. But the numbers grew to 40 per person – and even 100.

'€3,000 convinced people to stay in isolation'

“We often have to use the ‘threat’ of the €3,000 fine to convince people to stay in insolation. If it did not exist, the majority would not,” she believed, saying it is effective.

Every household member has to stay at home and not just the positive case only, she said, pointing out that fines are issued even due to an extra person in the house, because no one is allowed to leave and enter.

Even if the positive case is locked in a room, family members would need to stay home, Galea said.

They have to quickly decide if they want to live elsewhere, even though they are not contacts, but many argue they should not stay in.

Other problems include contacts who think they should only quarantine until a negative swab test result.

“This is a huge misconception because the virus has a 14-day incubation period. People can test positive on the last day. Although rare, it happens, and they fail to understand that,” Galea said.

“This is a pandemic and we need help to control it. To be able to go to the beach or restaurants and enjoy life, many must work countless hours behind the scenes. Every bit counts,” Galea said, appealing to others to volunteer on maltahealthnetwork.org.